I love Sundays! Recently, I have been dedicating Sundays to experimental shooting and learning. Whether I am testing a new lens, using a different style of lighting, or shooting in a new location, it has been beneficial for my work to dedicate time each week to learning and experimenting. This past week, I had the chance to shoot with Jollie. I wanted to do a portrait shoot and experiment with natural light vs using a single speed light in a 24X24” soft box. For a lens, I used my Nikon Nikkor 70-200 F/2.8 and my Nikon D750 camera body. In the 24X24” impact speedbox, I had my Yongnuo YN568EX, triggered by Yongnuo YN622N wireless flash triggers.

We got to our location around 9:30AM. The sun was still low in the sky and I wanted to position Jollie roughly in front of it to add some highlight and create a nice flare in camera as well as to make sure the light was relatively even on her face. We were in a field of Reeds and the sun was lighting up the tops of them, creating a nice glow and some beautiful soft light.

With Jollie roughly in front of the sun and my soft box in front and slightly to the right of her, as you can see above, I positioned myself about 10-15ft away so I could frame the shot. In camera, my settings were, ISO 100, F/2.8, with a shutter speed of 1/200th. The first two shots below as well as the last one are with the flash. The third shot is without the flash. For this shot, I left the soft box in place so the white would catch in the eyes, but turned off the triggers so it would not fire. I still really like the third shot, however I don’t think it has as much depth, I think the others have better highlights on the cheeks and overall, the flash helps to make for a more dynamic image. All in all, i think it’s kind of a personal preference. If I had had a reflector with me, I know that that would have given me the highlights I was looking for.

Overall, I am really happy with how all the shots came out. It was great to get out in the mild December weather and take advantage of the soft, morning sunshine and I am looking forward to more experiments next Sunday. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or hit me up via email anytime at mwellingtonphoto@hotmail.com. Thanks guys! Hope you all enjoy the holiday! Cheers.